Faculty, students, and alumni recently represented the UA Department of Art and Art History at SECAC, one of the nation’s preeminent art conferences. A group of six professors and five current and former students presented research, chaired sessions, and won awards at the 80th annual conference, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia from October 23-26, 2024.
Aidan Miles-Jamison and Ivy Borden pose for a picture at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Doris Sung. 
Ava Gibbs and Aubrey Dettman pose for a picture at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Doris Sung. 
Doris Sung presents at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Rachel Stephens. 
Daphne Shearer presents at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Rachel Stephens. 
Doris Sung wins the SECAC Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication. Image courtesy of Doris Sung. 
Aubrey Dettman presents at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Rachel Stephens. 
Ava Gibbs presents at SECAC 2024. Image courtesy of Rachel Stephens. 
Rachel Stephens wins the William R. Levin Award for Research in the History of Art. Image courtesy of Doris Sung.
Faculty Participation
Dr. Rachel Stephens, professor of art history and current Secretary of SECAC, earned the William R. Levin Award for Research in the History of Art, post-1750 for her project “Visualizing the Global South: Plantation Landscapes in Cuba and the United States.” Stephens also organized three sessions (Art of the United States) and presented “’None but the very best work’: Researching Furniture by Enslaved Makers” alongside Professor of Art History Dr. Lucy Curzon (“Getting Emotional Over Art History”) in a session called In the Absence of the Archive.
Associate Professor of Graphic Design Jonathan Cumberland presented “Posters and Public Health” in the session Integrating Arts and Design into Healthcare Research to Support Health and Wellness. Cumberland also chaired a session titled Technology and the Future of Illustration.
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Alba Conejero I Gutiérrez presented “Navigating New Territories: From Novice to Confident Motion Designers” during a session titled Dynamic Design: Navigating the Evolution of Time-Based Media in the Modern Graphic Design Classroom.
Associate Professor of Photography Allison Grant chaired a session titled Rediscovering Place in an Unstable Climate.
Assistant Professor of Art History Dr. Doris Sung brought home the SECAC Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication for her book Women of Chinese Modern Art: Gender and Reforming Traditions in National and Global Spheres, 1900s-1930s. Sung, who earned a William R. Levin Award Honorable Mention at SECAC 2021, also presented with other past award recipients in a session titled The Art and History of Research.
Current and Former Student Participation
Undergraduate art history students Aubrey Dettman (“Thomas Cole: Artist, Architect, and Inventor”) and Ava Gibbs (“Woman as Weaving: Dora Wheeler’s Penelope as a Reflection of Femininity and Independence”) each presented projects in undergraduate sessions. Graduate art history students Daphne Shearer (“Race and Stained Glass”) and Aidan Miles-Jamison (“The Anthropomorphic Stare: Posthuman Dynamics of Pleasure and Power in BEASTARS”) presented as well.
Ivy Borden, a recent graduate who earned her MA in art history in May 2024, presented “Entangled Among Things: Kudzu as a Creative Medium in Contemporary Southern Art” in a session titled Beyond Humanism: Exploring Post-Human and Trans-Human Entanglements.
SECAC (formerly the Southeastern College Art Conference) is a national non-profit organization devoted to education and research in the visual arts. Founded in 1942, SECAC provides advocacy and support for arts professionals and engenders opportunities for the exchange of scholarship and creative activities through an annual conference and publications. Though founded initially as an organization of artists, scholars, and arts professionals from the southeastern states, SECAC has grown to include individual and institutional members from across the United States and around the world, becoming the second largest national organization of its kind.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.